Growing Up

She switched the channels on the radio. The singer gave a loud shriek on realizing that he would be switched for someone else, or was it just a high pitched verse. But channel, she did change.
Then suddenly she started waving upwards through her driver’s window. I jumped and asked, "Did you like the song so much?" She looked at me disdainfully and said, "I was just raising the antenna!!"
Once, someone had placed an advertisement leaflet on her windscreen. She was feeling lazy to pull it off, so she started the wipers, and soon the model in the advertisement, was all over her wind-screen.
Another time someone was once honking a horn at her callous driving at rush hour that she got so disgusted and shouted, "Shut up or I will call Daddy!!"
Then there was once that she bought two stupid looking teddy's for her car. One adorned the front rear view and the other at the back, where she could look at it from the rear view (how innovative!!)
I could go on and on about her and her gleefully stupid ways. But that was when we were at college (as they say, when the leaves were still green and 14th Feb was Valentines Day and rose day was bigger than anything). Now it is different. Now after, 7 years, 2 bad relationships, 3 broken bones, and one black eye, I met her again. She is married and has a kid too. But that’s food for a later part. This one is different.
We were so close to commitment, yet something pulled us apart. There was this chauvinistic idea in my mind, that I was not earning, so how could I ask her to step down from the luxuries of life that were hers. Then there was.... her dad.
He didn't like me two bit. He thought, I was detrimental for his daughter.....a bad habit. She was unaware of it, and made a big point that I was the first guy she wanted her parents to meet (whatever that meant). Her mother was nice and cheerful. But he hated me from the first look, I knew it.
Somewhere inside, I realized he was right. I would have done the same for my daughter. I couldn't have let her languish with some young good-for-nothing guy, when I had created a world of comfort for her by working double shifts.
Despite the animosity we shared, he knew that she listened to me. I could convince her the way he no longer used to. So when she had refused to marry his friends’ son, he wrote a mail to me. I know he would have felt like hating himself for asking me to convince his daughter to accept the guy he wanted her to marry. In his mail, he said, that since she would only listen to me, I was the only one he could ask. He was controlled, yet somewhere it was a man to man sort of a prose. Mail was a good medium as I know he couldn't have asked me on my face. I understood. He was a good man, a loving and brave father.
I didn't write back. But a week later, she said yes!! I slowly made myself scarce in a shell of my own.
He met me at the wedding. I had just entered when we spotted each other. Excusing himself from relatives, he walked slowly to me.
We stood in silence for a while, and then tried to make small talk. Soon there was nothing more to say. Someone called him from behind. Just before leaving, he patted my shoulder and gave a bear hug. That was the first time during this whole ordeal that I felt tears brimming my eyes. He quickly turned away and walked, dabbing his eyes.
A month later, I got a mail from him. He wrote:
“She is happy and safe. We finally understood each other so late. Thanks.....son.”
I haven't seen him since then. But the mail is still there. It’s a reminder of my growing up years. Whenever I am feeling low, reading the mail brings back a sense of belief and security. Even when I am on a high, there is nothing better to see how good he was and how much more I need to grow. He was truly her hero........my hero......God Bless!!